The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-05-20

and everything as they went, with
out having TO retreat once. Their
benign features, their fascinating
ways, and their oily words were
more than the people in those be-
nighted regions could withstand.
After making complete circuit of
the island, they found themselves
again iu Honolulu, and it is pre-
sumed that, like their great prede-
cessor, Alexander, they sat down
and wcpt, because there were no
more simpletons to bambooz,e and
no more poi and fish to devour.
The concluding sentences of the
foregoing narration are not known
to be certainly true, for there is no
record thereof, but there is good
reason for believing every word to
be strictly accurate. The very fact
that old Alexander was such a fool,
is sufficient ground for supposing
that men of similarly powerful
minds and Of parallel achievements
would end in like manner. AS for
the rest, it and much more, was all
written down at the time by one of
the party, and published in the
Pacific Commercial Aacertiesr,
which was then the property of the
leader of the expedition. Accord
ing to that record, the great idea
which carried everything before it,
was the proposition to build line
of railway right around the island.
This was sprung on the people at an
early stage of the journey. 1t was
new and taking. 1t was powerful
idea, and ut its enuncation, hats
went up in the air like an eruption
of rubble from Mauna Loa, and
shouts rended the atmosphere like
discharge of musketry by the Grand
Army of Hawaii. Finding its first
declaration to be so successful, it
was used as the one great gun at all
subsequent camps, with telling
effect. The people were simple
enough to believe that the whole
scheme was arranged, and that in
three weeks they would be rolling into
Honolulu and back behind loco
motive, at the rate of GO miles an
hour. The Aduertiser naturally
took up the idea, and doomed it
with all the gravity of quaker,
until few people in Honolulu be-
gan to think there was really some
thing in it, and would get their
backs up if it were referred to in a
sceptical tone of voice.
Years have rolled by, and so has
the great idea, too. The railroad
was never built, was never CON-
menced. Probably many people
have forgotten that it was ever talk
: ed of. On the other side of the
mountain range the population of
to-day is largely made up of people
who were not there then. \ few
old stagers, however, still remain,
and if you talk to them about cer-
tain triumphal procession and pro-
missed railway, they will evince an
inclination to change the converse
tion; and if you are stubborn and
come back to the subject, they will
be liable to calculate profane Ian.
guage, point to the door, and for.
cibly introduce their shoe-leather to
your tleshy parts.
1t has apparently never been
quite clear to some thinking minds
whether the line-of- f-railroad-around
the-island-o of Oahu idea was born OF
Policy or Ignorance. A few gen.
tlemen have held that its features
bear q striking resemblance to the
former, and others aver most posi-.
lively that there is no mistalSing it:
intimate relationship to the latter
We, however, after mature reflec
: ton, are disposed to believe tina
!, Policy was its father and Ignorance
its mother. So in this case it wa
the progeny of the two combined
= Certain it is that Ignorance per
formed the part of faithful nurse
Let any intelligent man glance fol
five seconds at the idea, and say il
it has not an unintelligent look.
We have heard Of railway to tn,